Tibet Cloud Computing Center becomes “world’s highest” cloud campus

First phase of mammoth data centre campus in Tibet Autonomous Region completed

Chinese state media have reported that the first stage of construction of a lofty cloud campus in the Tibet Autonomous Region has been completed.

According to the country’s state media, the facility, located in Tibet’s administrative capital Lhasa, is the highest cloud campus in the world. As noted by DCD, the emphasis on “cloud” is conspicuous here – suggesting that the Tibet Cloud Computing Center is not necessarily the world’s highest data centre. 

11.8 billion yuan (£1.3bn) will be invested in the sprawling project, which will eventually cover an area of 645,000 square kilometres across a region known for its high terrain and harsh climate.

Construction on the three-phase project began in 2017 and will be completed around 2025 or 2026, by which point it is estimated that it will be generating 10 billion yuan in revenue each year and filled with over 70,000 cabinets.

Now that phase one is complete, operators Ningsuan Technology Group, a Chinese technology firm, say they will begin trial operations at the facility with Alibaba Cloud. In 2018, China’s cloud leader signed an agreement with Ningsuan to supply its cloud services from the campus.

The Tibet Cloud computing Center, located in China’s state-run Himalayan industrial park in the Lhasa Economic and Technological Development Zone, is tipped to be a key data link between China and it’s neighbouring South Asian Countries, as China ramps up the Beijing Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), announced by General Secretary Xi Jinping in 2013.

Tibet has emerged as a critical enabler of the ambitious development project, which seeks to strengthen maritime and terrestrial connections with over 70 nations across Southeast Asia and Europe. 

So far, most of the work completed or underway as part of the BRI are rail and road infrastructure projects linking China to Nepal and India via Tibet, according to RWR Advisory Group.